A transportation network for vehicles can include several interconnected main routes on which separate vehicles travel between locations. For example, a transportation network may be formed from interconnected railroad tracks with rail vehicles traveling along the tracks. The vehicles may travel according to schedules that dictate where and when the vehicles are to travel in the transportation network. The schedules may be coordinated with each other in order to arrange for certain vehicles to arrive at various locations in the transportation network at desired times and/or in a desired order.
The transportation network can include a vehicle yard, such as a rail yard that includes a relatively dense grouping of routes or locations where several vehicles can congregate. As the vehicles travel through the transportation network, one or more vehicles may travel to a vehicle yard for storage, maintenance, refueling, reordering with other vehicles, and the like. The times at which the vehicles are to travel to and enter into the vehicle yards may be dictated by the schedules of the vehicles.
But, due to unforeseen circumstances, such as damage to routes in the transportation network, unplanned maintenance to one or more vehicles, accidents, and the like, one or more vehicles may fall behind their associated schedules. Falling behind the schedules can cause the vehicles to enter into and/or leave a vehicle yard at a different time than previously scheduled. As a result, the number of vehicles in a vehicle yard may vary from a previously scheduled or planned number.
The capacity of vehicle yards to receive vehicles may vary as the numbers of vehicles in the vehicle yards change. If a vehicle is scheduled to enter into a vehicle yard at a time when the vehicle yard has insufficient capacity to enter into the yard, the vehicle may need to stop outside of the vehicle yard and wait for the capacity to increase so that the vehicle can enter into the vehicle yard. For example, a train having one or more locomotives and several cars may be unable to fit into a rail yard when other locomotives, cars, or other vehicles are in the rail yard and there is not enough room to receive the additional locomotive and cars of the train. As a result, the vehicle waiting to enter the vehicle yard may waste resources such as time, fuel, and/or operator time, and/or generate additional emissions while waiting for the capacity of the vehicle yard to increase.
Some vehicles may be longer than a receiving route (e.g., track) of a vehicle yard. For example, some trains may be longer that the longest continuous track in a rail yard. When such a train arrives at the rail yard, the train may be required to stop to be divided up into smaller groupings of the rail cars and/or locomotives in the train. The smaller groupings can then be received into the rail yard.
Dividing up the vehicles, however, can take a significant amount of time. Additionally, operation of the vehicles may be subject to legal limitations, such as time limits on how long a crew of operators can continuously work before being replaced by a new crew of operators. Switching out the crew of operators can be a significant, and at times uncontrollable, expense in the operation of the vehicles. For example, a long train that arrives at a rail yard too late for an existing crew to separate the train into smaller groupings and enter the groupings into the rail yard may be subject to more expensive local crews of operators, with the local crews of operators having payment requirements that may not be able to be controlled or anticipated in advance.